Sports

Draft spotlight shines on Bogosian

The Petes' Zach Bogosian is about to start on another segment of his trip to the podium of the NHL entry draft on June 20 in Ottawa.

Two stellar seasons with the Petes have shown he is among the best three or four young players eligible for this year's draft. Over the next 10 weeks NHL teams will delve into all the other aspects of Bogosian's persona.

The NHL's Central Scouting Bureau, as well as the 30 NHL teams' scouting staffs, have crunched all the data they have gleaned from the scouting reports after the thousands of observations by their staffs.

Some teams have already sent scouts and evaluators to Peterborough to conduct one-on-one interviews with Bogosian.

Others will fly him to their respective cities to have him evaluated -physically and psychologically.

Early in June the NHL brings in the top prospects, including the Europeans and Americans, to a combine in Toronto. It's there students and staff from York University Department of Kinesiology will put all the young players through a series of time-proven physical evaluations to determine their level of fitness. Some teams often bring in their training staff, along with their scouts, to watch the players go through the excruciating, gut-wrenching testing.

Afterwards, each team has the opportunity to interview the player for 15 minutes. In the case of Bogosian, teams selecting late in the first round may not bother, knowing very well he will not be there for them. In some cases, some top teams expecting to unload some of their older players may expect to receive high draft picks in return, and therefore will spend some time with the top-end prospects.

When I was working with Buffalo, we interviewed Alex Ovechkin, even though we were picking 13th. There was some interest in some of our players and there was a possibility we could move to that coveted first pick in the draft. But Ovechkin's body language throughout the interview said, "Why are you wasting my time when it is obvious I'm going first overall?"

I remember him as being pleasant and accommodating and so confident of his English that he did the interview without an interpreter - a rarity for Russian players.

Players projected to be selected for the middle of the first round often are interviewed by more than 25 teams.

The Petes have at least two other players rated by Central Scouting for the June draft: Brett Theberge and Zack Harnden. If they are not invited to the June combine, they will likely receive some phone calls from interested teams.

After the combine, some seriously interested teams will bring in the prospect to meet the entire staff. The year Eric Staal was drafted, 2003, Buffalo had the fifth pick overall. I drove Staal down to Buffalo to meet the Sabres' staff. The Sabres also brought in Nathan Horton, Dustin Brown and flew to the University of Minnesota to see Thomas Vanek, their eventual pick, before the draft. Goalie Marc-Jean Fleury went first to Pittsburgh with Eric going second to Carolina.

Bogoisan's agent, Bobby Orr will be with him in Ottawa a few days before the entry draft. The kid will again make the rounds of the clubs with a realistic chance of selecting him. These sessions often include the coaches and sometimes even the owner. Some teams even do some physical testing at the draft.

The 1996 entry draft was in St. Louis. One prospect there was essentially an unknown player: Zdeno Chara. Few teams had an accurate read on this giant, even though the Czech-born player played the previous season in Prince George.

The Sabres interviewed Chara in a hotel suite the day before the draft. He had just finished extensive testing and interviewing from another team. We asked Chara how he did with the team known for its confrontational interviewing and demanding physical testing - in his limited English, Chara told us with a big grin, "I puke!"

Chara was eventually selected 56th overall by the New York Islanders and is a force in the NHL today.

Bogosian, according to a number of scouts, has the potential of being the first selection overall. Forward Steve Stamkos of the Sarnia Sting is the consensus first pick at the moment. If the team with that first pick, and it will not be determined until the lottery next week, needs a defenceman more than a forward, Bogosian could move to that coveted first pick.

Most evaluators feel there are three defencemen who will be selected in the first five picks. Besides Bogosian there are Drew Doughty of Guelph and Alex Pietrangelo of Niagara.

The Petes have never had a player selected first overall, though Gary Monahan was picked first in 1963. This was the first year the NHL had an entry draft. Most eligible players had been signed to C forms by the six NHL teams and locked to them. The draft was started to disperse the few players not snapped up by those teams.

By 1967, the year the NHL doubled in size, all players were selected through the draft. Monahan, playing with the St. Michael's Juveniles, was selected by the Montreal Canadiens first overall, then sent to Peterborough, a team they owed for the next season.

Three times former Petes were selected second overall: Chris Pronger in 1993; Eric Staal in 2003 and Jordan Staal in 2006.

Bogosian is heading into 10 weeks of exciting times culminating on June 20 on the stage at Scotiabank Place in the nation's capital when he pulls on the sweater of his new team. Before that moment he will be flown around North America, feted by teams in fancy restaurants, poked and prodded by NHL doctors and trainers and analyzed by scouts, managers, coaches and team psychologists.

Hopefully he has a stronger stomach than Chara!

Don Barrie is a retired schoolteacher, former scout for the NHL's Buffalo Sabres and a member of the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame and the Peterborough and District Sports Hall of Fame.